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Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Art For the Sky!

Please forgive me, life has gotten away from me for the past couple of months...and now we're in Art Show season and sometimes I feel like life is getting away from me!

A couple of weeks ago, our school participated in the most amazing community art project, and I wanted to share it with you!

(Look closely, the "paint" on this alligator is made up of about 750 students and staff members at our school!)

We worked with Daniel Dancer, an aerial artist from Oregon to create this jumbo-sized work of art on our soccer field. It was a true test of patience, collaboration, and community to pull the whole thing off! It is called "Art For the Sky"- a program that teaches children to utilize donated, post-consumer goods to create a giant, living painting using people. I worked closely with Mr. Dancer to design our project, which will be prominently displayed in our hallways for the next 40 years!

One of the teachings of Art for the Sky was that of "impermanence"...that this project is not forever. All of the materials we used will either be absorbed into the Earth or back into our community. The alligator's teeth were created using sand from our beach.

The water that made up the alligator's habitat was made up of over 500 pairs of jeans donated by our students and families. When the project was over, we donated the jeans to our local Salvation Army and to a local church who will be making them into shoes to send to Africa.

Black mulch was used to outline our design, and red and yellow t-shirts made up the inside of the mouth and the eye.

Finally it was time to call out the troops- all 650 students and 75 staff members to make up the "paint" of the alligator! We were lucky enough to have a local fire department bring their ladder truck so we could get the aerial shot. All our students crouched down and held it for about 5 minutes...and...

WE DID IT! It was such a great experience...to be a part of the whole, a symbolic piece of this school, and a memory for many years to come!

If you would like more information about Art for the Sky, or Daniel Dancer, please visit his website at www.artforthesky.com